Thursday, December 29, 2005

Oxford County Historic Maps

Two cadastral maps of Oxford County—showing dwellings (with names of homeowners), businesses, churches, cemeteries, etc.—were published in the nineteenth century. The 1858 Gillette and Huntington wall map of the county (from a survey by H. F. Welling) is hard to find, but images of individual towns have been reproduced and published as The Old Maps of Oxford County, Maine (Fryeburg, Me., Saco Valley Printing, 1972). The Atlas of Oxford County, Maine by H.E. Halfpenny and John W. Caldwell (Philadelphia, Penn.: Caldwell & Halfpenny, 1880) is more generally available in libraries.

David Rumsey Map Collection — Includes dozens of maps of Maine taken from antique atlases. See the maps of Matthew Carey for early views of Oxford County, showing the old division line between York and Cumberland Counties, and the maps by David H. Burr, Joseph Meyer and others which show the extent of Oxford County before the creation of Franklin and Androscoggin Counties. Moses Greenleaf's 1829 map shows town lines and original proprietors.